


Come Back to the Future

by SaraL



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-03 20:04:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13348527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraL/pseuds/SaraL
Summary: The war is coming and Tony wants to keep Peter Safe.Peter can help. But he always gets in trouble.





	Come Back to the Future

"Mr. Stark, did you see me?"

\-------

It was a week ago when he had an off-site meeting with Cap. While the adults were clearing something up, the kids (Peter, Wanda, and Clint) and Android had their little chats.

On the drive back, Tony asked Peter how it went with the other Avengers. It lightened Tony's heart to hear the kid talk about all the fun he had from this little trip.  
It was warming until the conversation moved onto Wanda, who obtained her power from the scepter experiment held by HYDRA. Wanda didn't know exactly what all her powers do. Similarly, Peter was troubled by the same uncertainness with his powers. The two quickly got along and exchanged phone numbers.

Tony would blame Clint for telling Peter (with bias and exaggeration) about what Wanda did to Clint and himself in the event of Ultron. In Clint's case, it was easy, mind control. But it's more complicated for Tony.  
Before the Ultron fiasco, he believed the vision he saw was the future, which had led to the creation of Ultron and Vision, a few people agreed, and the others think it was merely a projection of his fear and persuaded him to work on overcoming it.

Of course, Peter would have been on his side for this debate. He immediately believed Tony saw the future and curiosity rose.

"Mr. Stark, did you see me?" The kid looked at him wide-eyed.

Tony swears he knew how many questions were going through the kid's mind.  
"No." He instantly responded, trying to cease the too troublesome interest at the beginning.

"Why not?"

Before Tony could say anything, Peter went on elaborating on his question.  
"I am sort of an 'alliance' with the Avengers now, right? If anything horrible happens, large enough that it would destroy New York or North American or the Earth or Human race, and need the Avengers to fight till last breath to win, I would definitely be there to help."

Damn the kid was serious when he said that.  
Tony just let the kid ranting to himself and move on to other subjects with his wild thoughts. But it started a storm in Tony's head.

He couldn't stop questioning since that day. Wondering why he didn't see Spider-Man swing into the battle, why he didn't see Peter.

The kid was right.  
First of all, the kid would 100% throw himself into trouble's way when it comes.  
Second, the kid is strong enough to be asked for backup.

He spoke with Wanda again, but she herself doesn't have a definite explanation of what she did back then, or where his vision came from.  
He would do anything to get ready for that day should it require everyone to fight for life. But how can Peter? What would can he do with Peter?

"Sir. The anonymous contact has sent you more files." FRIDAY's voice came through his watch.  
It's one of the priority alerts Tony had set up a few weeks ago. He immediately told Friday display the files in front of him.

His expression hardened as he went through the information, and forwarded them to a few trustable people before finish reading everything.

After going through the files the second time, he stood there for a whole five minutes and made a decision. He made three calls, to two school principals and one hot aunt.

"Tony Stark, are you out of your mind?"

That was May's first reaction to Tony's offer to sponsor Peter to the Empire University and that the principals have supported the proposal.  
It was an act of kindness. Peter has been talking about going to ESU for a long time, and they had to sort out the finance in the next two years. But they were expecting that to happen when Peter is graduating high school, not when he just became a Freshman.

What is this guy thinking? Gave her nephew a scholarship, now he wants to just "here is another sponsorship" and take him out of school, away from his friends, change his life?

"Mrs. Parker..."

"No you listen, Tony Stark. Peter is 15 years old, and he just started in high school for god's sake. What do you want from him?"

"Mr. Parker, I only wanted to help. Let's cut it short and go straight to the point to save you hours of yelling at me. We both know Peter is overqualified and staying in high school is just a waste of time, going to college would also help him feeling easier about being a burden to you."

"Stark, you stop right there..."

"No. You know that's true. The kid is damn upright and tries to do good things at all he can afford. And being a responsibility of you made him think that he is a burden and for the sake of his confidence issues he might even doubt that you will live better without him. I get how you feel. The kid is probably going through the same guilt-ridden appreciation feeling every time I offer him something."

There was silence from the other side of the line. Tony paused.  
May Parker was like a Mother to Peter, she only wants him to be well. She must have noticed the timid appreciation Peter lived with, and it's a hard knot to solve in any acquired family like theirs.  
He took a deep breath and spoke again with a softer tone.

"Mrs. Parker, I won't have suggested this if Peter is not ready for college, or if he has more than those two friends who he can easily stay in touch after leaving high school. The final decision is not to be made by anyone other than Peter himself. But I want to make sure there's nothing in his way when he says yes."

"Tony Stark. You are a great bastard."

"Thank you, Mrs. Parker."

The door opened.  
"May, I'm home." The teen said cheerily as he walked in, then froze at the sight of his Aunt at the edge of tears.

"Peter, come here." May's voice is unusually shaky.

Peter carefully moved closer, mentally preparing himself for possible bad news.  
But he didn't expect what he heard.

"Wh... what did you say? Aunt May?"

May passed the phone to Peter, Tony's voice from the other end of the line shook him back to reality.  
"Mr, Mr. Stark... I, I don't know how to thank you... for everything..."

"Hey, kid. This is an investment in you, all right?" Hearing the kid's stutter always makes Tony smile, he felt a little lighter with the current weight he's carrying. "Not just in Spidey, but also Peter Parker."

\-------

After explaining the situation to his two best friends and promise to stay in touch, Peter jumped right into exploring the new school.  
University life is fast-paced and exciting. The subjects were more challenging, and he got more room to work on enhancing his web fluid.

Peter frowned at his cell phone. He was all tied up for the last month and hadn't been able to reach Tony. But for the last week, he tried to call and text but heard nothing. Happy told him that Tony went on a business trip somewhere remote, and wouldn't be able to finish what he's negotiating for another two months.

"Peter, here you are. Want to come to my lab today? There's something I want to show you." Grady Scraps walked up to Peter.  
Grady is an Assistant Professor who came to New York on an exchange program. He attended the Physics class Peter took to get to know the new school. The two started talking by chance and soon hang out on a daily basis.

Grady liked Peter, the young genius is kind and genuine. He appreciated the company and even shared some space in his lab with Peter. They would spend hours in the lab working on their own projects with or without chatting (Peter would talk to himself, which Grady found amusing and tunes it out like white noise).

Grady had finally completed the prototype for his project yesterday, and can't wait to share the good news with his friend.

The project that Grady calls 'Break Room of Tomorrow' is actually just a door. Grady mounted it on a wall in the lab.  
But when he turned the doorknob and opened the door. It showed a room with much more complicated gadgets than what's in Grady's lab.

Ten minutes after Grady walked into the room, he came out holding two bottles of Cokes.  
He handed one to Peter. It was a limited edition, and most importantly, Peter had never seen this flavour before.

Grady chuckled at Peter's surprise. "Come on, Peter. Try it. It's the taste of future."

After demonstrating his project, fatigue caught up with Grady and Peter had to half-carry him back to his dorm.

When he went back to the lab, Peter paused at the door.  
There's an A3 envelope on the table which wasn't there half an hour ago.

Strange. Peter thought.  
Grady had only given a spare key of the lab to him, and letters and deliveries were to be picked up at the reception.

With enhanced vision, he saw what's written on the envelope.

_Tony's vision was real._

Peter's heart pounded heavily. Could it be what he thought it means?

Peter gulped as he opened the envelope and took out the content:  
A newspaper dated two months in the future.  
A hand-written report.

The photo took up the whole frontpage of the newspaper is still blurry despite the enhanced resolution, in it is the same portrait of the Avengers leaving the site of havoc after saved another day.

Tony stood in the centre of the photo, his suit was half torn, electric sparks and dust covering him from head to tow; Captain America walking beside him looking rather scrappy, and he had an eye-patch; Vision floating behind them carrying Scarlet Witch; in the background, a medical team is attending Hawkeye and Black Widow; the rest of the team were outside the photo for Peter to know their status.  
There's a spaceship-like vessel parked beside the rim of destruction.

A fearful image of the other Avengers dying outside the photo crept into Peter's mind.  
He quickly flipped through the pages, there are no more than the usual salute to the mightiest heroes of planet Earth, commending them once more on their heroic actions to save the Earth.

He forced himself to calm down.  
If this is indeed news from the future and there are no other articles in the envelope, he should assume they all walked off rather than fabricating anything worse than the reality.

He read the report next.

An hour later.

"Hack the Stark Tower!? That's so cool. ....Wait, Peter, you serious? Didn't you say Tony Stark has an AI there? And why would you want to hack it?" Ned gaped at his friend's ambitious and erratic plan.

"That's why I need your help. Don't worry, it shouldn't be too hard. We have Karen here to help. Well, not like she's going to actually help us. I made sure to turn her off. But she's connected to FRIDAY, Mr. Stark's AI, we can leverage that."

"They are connected?"

Peter hesitated before answering.  
"Uh... Apparently, the baby monitor protocol syncs live recording to Friday..."

"There's a baby monitor protocol?"

"Forget it. I'll prepare, you read the report. We should start this as soon as possible."

Ned flipped through the hand-written report Peter brought with him.  
"Are you sure you can trust this guy?"

"I'm not sure... my instinct says yes, I'll just be careful. So far he doesn't tell me to do anything dangerous. Just hack into a few systems, get the information for me myself to know what's going on."

"I wouldn't say that's no danger... but if you are staying out of the big fights like this guy recommended, it's probably not bad. Uh... 'survives until the end, and you will come to understand.' That's reassuring? You are not telling Tony Stark about it?"

"First, I can't find him. Second, I'll know that after I get what Mr. Stark is hiding." Peter looked up from the computer screen. "Wait, now to think about it, do you think he sent me to ESU at this time for purpose?"

"Ya... to think what you pulled off when he told you to stay out of the Vulture's case, he probably did it to keep you distracted." Ned nodded but then his brows furrowed.

"What's wrong? Did you notice something?"

"Uh... not really I guess. I don't know why, but there's something with this handwriting, it looks really familiar..."

"Yea probably because those were mine."

"What? What do you mean by... you wrote this?" For a second Ned actually thought of the possibility and reason that Peter would do all these to prank him.

"I think it's actually from the future me. Probably to warn me of what's coming. You know. Grady just showed me his time machine, and this appeared." Peter lifted the future newspaper towards the report.

"Peter, if this is real. It's serious!"

"I know. That's why we need to do this."

\------

Tony dropped his wrench when he heard the news.

"It arrived in New York!?"

"Right in the centre of fucking Manhattan."

Black Panther looked stern.  
"We've done our best preparation in Wakanda, and the Outriders did come here, why would he arrive in New York at the end?"

"Shit, what are we doing here, we need to go back to New York."

While they discuss, Tony had pulled up all the news report and sightings he could find.  
Natasha stood behind him, watch the way his shoulder relaxed at a video of Spider-Man swing away from under the enormous spaceship carrying a woman and a kid.  
"At least your little Spider is there to help the civilians before we arrive."

"Just hope he doesn't get himself killed before that."

"It seems he's got help." Natasha pointed at a screen. Not far away from Spider-Man, a man is floating in the air, red cloak flying behind him, he appeared to be protecting the civilians from falling building pieces.

"Don't worry, we are going now." Captain America briefly patted his shoulder before went to get his stuff.

\------

After they arrived New York the fasted they could and got through the first wave of attacks and got back to the tower, Tony pulled Peter to the side.  
"What did you do to your suit?"

"Hey, Tony, easy on the kid."

Tony ignored Scott and pulled off Peter's mask to see him turning away to avoid eye contact.  
"Wha, what are you talking about?"

"Kid. You are such a bad lier. I tried to pull your Baby Monitor recording up on the way to New York. Interestingly, there's none since a week ago, and Spider-Man had being swung around the city saving people this whole time. Mind explaining to me why the connection has been disabled?"

"Did he say Baby Monitor?" Clint whispered to Sam, rather loudly.  
Sam crossed his arms. "I can only imagine with the name what the suit does to the kid. This is some real intrusive creepy helicopter dad deed."

Peter tried hard to ignore the chatters going around them.

"Uh... I didn't want to record everything I see..."

"Why is that?"

"I... I was helping someone with his science project... It was top secret?"

Tony seemed to ponder on that for a few seconds.  
"And you were helping him as Spider-Man? Does this someone know your identity?"

"Yes... he found out who I am by accident... but he's a nice guy and even offered to help me."

"And I'm not surprised." Tony sighed. "He helps you, how?"

"Uh... on my school work? Oh or on enhancing my suit?"

"Technically it's my suit. If there's anything wrong with it or you need anything, come to me. Understand?" Tony finally cut Peter loose. Noted in his mind to have a talk with that someone.

Petter quickly nodded. Ran away to talk to Ned who had come to see him.

"So... I guess you are not going to tell them?"

"'I' have talked to Doctor Strange, and he said each of them has done their best, we got a best possible outcome. I don't want to change that. I don't have to be the hero, just need to back them up, you know, at those few critic time points."

"But you probably should tell Tony Stark what you are doing?"

"Tell me what?"  
Tony walked around the corner, saw the two pale teens staring at him.

"Nothing." Peter answered quickly, then looked like he wanted to smack himself.

Tony learned how stubborn the kid was. So instead of kept pushing him, he let him go without trouble.  
He went to see Doctor Strange.

"Iron Man." The doctor greeted him.

"Doctor Strange. Thank you for what you did. I'm here to ask what you have told Spidey?" Tony went straight to the objective.

Strange recalled he and Spider-Man have first met in the chaos, and he hadn't spoken to the young vigilante much, mostly the vigilante brought up comments and jokes.  
But Tony didn't seem satisfied with his answer.

Strange studied the look on Tony's face, part of it looked vaguely familiar. And he recognized it.  
"Iron Man, Spider-Man is your protege He admired you. You will always be the person he trusted the most in all of us, you should not worry about that."

"I am not." Tony snapped.

"You are not?" Strange smirked.

Tony didn't think the conversation with Doctor Strange went well. But with the more severe situation in the next month, he can only do his best watch over Peter in the attacks.

To his relief, the kid listened once, he stayed out of the major fights and instead swung around the city helping civilians.

But as the war went closer to the end, he can no longer afford getting distracted in any fighting.

Tony lay on the ground, panting. His suit was nearly unfunctional at this point. He glanced to the right, Natasha was lying on the ground with Steve not far away. It's just like his vision, but they are still breathing.  
Tony let out a sigh, couldn't help when the past few years' moments flashed through his mind.  
He has done everything he could, and so did everyone else. There wouldn't be any grief of 'what ifs'.

He gritted his teeth and scrambled to his feet.  
The fight is not over, and no gave up.

His heart almost stopped at the sight of Vision on the ground and a sceptre touching the stone on his forehead.  
The flush of light and Vision's painful cry only lasted a few seconds.

A shadow swung into the field, pulled Vision away.

"Uh... guys am I seeing things?" Clint hesitantly asked from where he lay.

"If you are referring to seeing multiple Spider-Man, you are not." Natasha answered him.

Spider-Mans were wearing a red and gold armour that Tony recognized as his Iron-Spider suit, it was one of a kind. How could they...?  
Then it suddenly dawned on him, a great fear rose inside his chest.  
Peter, what have you done?

Tony watched as one Spider-Man swung away with Vision, another one carried Scarlet Witch and Nakia.  
The third one was extremely close to Thanos, and he took his chance at the gauntlet.

Smash.  
The tyrant pinned the small figure down, anger spreading across his face.  
Spider-Man struggled but couldn't get out of the hold.

"FRIDAY, are you ready? Come back to me, FRI?" Tony desperately called on his suit.  
Right before the suit light back up, two more figures swung into the scene, one kicked Thanos away with great force, and another snatched Spider-Man away.  
"He is the earliest. Keep him safe, take him to the Room." The gold and red-clad figure that stayed to distract Thanos yelled at the one swung away.

"This is a good chance, what do you say, Cap?" Ant-sized Scott flew over with his wasp ride.

"Guys, are you ready for another round?" Steve shook off the debris on top of him, gripped onto his shield.

\------

Tony stood in Grady's lab, glowering at the door that has been called "Break Room of Tomorrow".  
It has been a month since the end of the war. Most of New York and Wakanda survived.  
Steve and Natasha were already back up running in the second week, and Tony has been discharged from the medical wing today, though he already sneaked out a few times before that.

Spider-Man disappeared after the war.

Grady had explained to him how he found out about Peter being Spider-Man, and he had helped him to upgrade it to enable time travel to the past as well.  
That explained the anonymous person (or persons) who has been sending him information on the arrivals and eventually came to help in the final attack.

He was proud and angry at the same time.  
The kid did what's best for the situation, but he has once again disobeyed him, putting himself in grave danger.

"It's likely that Peter travelled back for at least two months. And considering he could have made a few more trips to have five Spider-Man together at some point. The time corridor has been very complex... when the latest him got back through the door, he could have gone to the time point where he was supposed to be. Which may be months from now."  
Grady carefully explained.

"But he was there. He could have stayed." Tony said. He has become familiar with how Grady's Room works.  
An earlier Peter needed to travel through the door at a future time when a later Peter time travelled, but there's no restriction on when or where the later Peter needed to be.

At the last fight, the future Peter was there. Why did he leave?

Or, he didn't leave...  
What Peter has done was absolutely crazy, multiple time trip on the same loop is especially dangerous. Anything happening to any Peter in the middle of the time travel would have changed the whole existence of the only future Peter.

What if Peter travelled to the future?

What if that Spider-Man failed to escape when Thanos was defeated?

When Grady went back to San Francisco in December, he entrusted the Break Room of Tomorrow with Tony.  
Tony secured it in his lab, where he spent most of his time in. He did routine maintenance on the door, so it's functional at all times.

"Hey Kid, did you have fun over there? Hope you did, but we had some parties too. Thor hosted another round of Hammer Lifting competition. Hope you are coming back soon."

"I guess today is not the day? Kid, your Aunt came by today, dropped off some bakeries. I think in this way she is threatening me to bring you back or feed them to me."

"Iron Spider 2 is ready for testing, you must want to see it. After all, I think Iron Spider broke beyond repair."

"Peter, I have already scolded you millions of times in my mind...Auntie probably the same, and lots of tears. Steve would like to do that too, you know, he is the watcher. Nat and Clint and the others worried about you too. If you come back soon, we might not chide you much."

Christmas is in two days, with everyone coming to the tower, Tony has also invited May though he didn't know how to face her, with her only remaining relative still missing.

"Peter, come back soon. Though I guess come back is not exactly the right term since you haven't been at this time. But this is your team, we are all waiting for you in your future. Please come back to the future."

Tony rubbed his eyes. He hadn't slept over 10 hours in the last week, why is it all of a sudden so bright?

"Boss, Sir Peter has arrived."

Tony slowly turned to face the door opening to a bright room.  
The familiar lanky figure walked out with a limp. His suit was in that half-broken state same as when he last saw it, wary and guilt over his face.

"Mr. Stark, I'm sorry... I was hit, and I blacked out, I tried to come back when I woke up and I..."  
Tony pulled him into a tight hug.

  
"I'm glad you are back."

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New Year! Hope you all had good holidays and happy with your new year's resolutions.  
> This work took me a long time though I started with an impulse and most of the plotting was done quickly.
> 
> Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it! Comments and suggestion are welcome!


End file.
